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• Tuesday, November 18, 2008 05:20 PM

  @azzezmalicieuse

  Thank you for your thought-provoking response.

  You write: "For your information, Cecilbeanie, one can actually find more intelligent discourse on the sexualization of the black female form (aka Hottentot Venus) written by black (and white) intellectuals who could have made a much more cogent point on this matter better than Ms Kaplan could on her best day."

  1. For your information, I have posted two letters that discuss the Hottentot Venus (Sarah Baartman). In those letters I suggest that the issue of the beauty (and "booty")of black women is highly charged and Ms Kaplan's POV can and should be placed within a cultural/social/historical context.

  2. I do not know Ms Kaplan so do not know what she can or can not do "on her best day." Perhaps you know her and can speak to this better than I.

  You also write: "All I can say is if an article entitled 'First Lady Got Back' is what was first required for you to engage in any kind of thought-provoking analysis on the sexualization of the black body:male and female, I feel that says far more about you than it could ever say about me or anyone else who chose to see this article as anything more than an lazy exercise in narcissistic, racial navel-gazing..."

  1. You really have no way of knowing when I "began" to engage in "thought-provoking analysis on the sexualization of the black body," do you? So, I think this remark is just a bit gratuitous, don't you?

  2. Please explain why the catalyst for engaging in "thought-provoking analysis" must itself be of high intellectual quality? Intelligent, creative people can find food for thought in things that ordinary people would not deem worthy of a second look. If you can not see that the theme underlying this article is a very serious one than you clearly just want to spout off. The serious theme underlying this article is the way black bodies have been sexualized, exploited and abused throughout history. I do not know if Ms Kaplan intended to do a "deep" article but whatever the case, one certainly can't miss the connection. And her article can, of course, serve as a springboard to a deeper engagement with this subject.

  —cecilbeanie Read cecilbeanie's other letters
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